Bitcoin, ether sink to multi-month lows as recession worries take hold

(Reuters) -Bitcoin and ether tumbled on Monday to multi-month lows as worries over a possible U.S. recession in the wake of soft data gripped financial markets and triggered a rush to safe-haven assets.

Crypto markets have gotten a boost this year after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved an exchange-traded fund to track the spot price of bitcoin and ether.

More recently, however, bitcoin has fallen alongside other assets including global equities in a broad selloff as investors fear that a U.S. recession could be on the horizon, with rising geopolitical worries also weighing. The cryptocurrency is off nearly 20% from its March 2024 high.

"It's a big reminder that Bitcoin and crypto in general are risk assets and sit at the pointy end of the risk spectrum," said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG.

Bitcoin sank to $53,091, its lowest since late February and last fetched $54,112, while ether slid to its weakest since mid-January and was last down 16% at $2,300.

Sycamore said bitcoin is testing trend channel support at $54,000/$53,000 area and needs to hold that level to "prevent further capitulation towards $48,000."

(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore, Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru and Ira Iosebashvili in New York; Editing by Will Dunham and Shri Navaratnam)